April 2013

By Scott Booth and Timothy Gustafson

The Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board ruled that an out-of-state corporation’s subsidiary qualified as a financial institution by virtue of the lending activities undertaken by the trusts in which it held beneficial ownership and from which the subsidiary derived more than 50% of its gross income. Under Massachusetts’ statutory “catchall”

By Kathryn Pittman and Jack Trachtenberg

On April 17, 2013, Select Medical Corporation (Select Medical) filed suit in federal district court seeking to enjoin Delaware from enforcing an unclaimed property assessment issued for years that had been resolved already through the state’s voluntary disclosure program. In 2006, Select Medical entered into Delaware’s voluntary disclosure program

By Todd Betor and Pilar Mata

In a Letter of Findings, the Indiana Department of Revenue disallowed a corporate partner’s attempt to deduct flow-through income from a limited liability company as “foreign source dividends and other adjustments” on its Indiana corporate income tax return. Indiana requires corporate partners to report their share of partnership income,

By Christopher Chang and Jack Trachtenberg

The New York State Division of Tax Appeals (DTA) ruled that the dividend income received by a taxpayer holding company from its minority ownership in a publicly traded corporation constituted “investment income” for purposes of New York’s Article 9-A franchise tax on business corporations. The holding company held stock

Jack Pet of the Month 1.jpgMeet Maximus (Max, pictured below) and Elphaba (Elphie, pictured here with Jack), the lovable cats of Sutherland SALT’s Jack Trachtenberg.

Max likes to think that his size makes him tough, as he walks around like the tough cat in the house, but as soon as visitors come to the door, he scrambles for cover

By Mary Alexander and Andrew Appleby

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance determined that a women’s apparel company’s “inspirational shopping” trips were not sufficient to be considered “doing business” in the state for corporate franchise tax purposes. Petitioner was a traditional remote seller headquartered outside of New York. Petitioner’s employees occasionally traveled

By Zachary Atkins and Timothy Gustafson

The Iowa Supreme Court passed on an opportunity to breathe life into equal protection jurisprudence and, instead, rejected Qwest Corporation’s challenge under the Iowa Constitution to a property tax regime that taxes the personal property of incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) but not competitive long distance telephone companies (CLDTCs)

In this edition of A Pinch of SALT, Jeff Friedman, Pilar Mata and Mary Alexander examine the requirements and ramifications of states’ attempts to apply prospective-only remedies to unconstitutional taxes and explore why Maryland State Comptroller of the Treasury v. Wynne is not an appropriate case for prospective-only relief.

 

Read “Wynne-ing Isn’t